Well said Larry, a couple of points

Your point that Hunter is the entry level class is correct if your premise is that it is the class where almost all beginners start. However a true entry level class is usually a stepping stone on the way to more competitive class, this is not the case with our hunter division. Not only do shooters stay in class, we attract many from the other two divisions. You are correct about steering new shooters to the class, without hunter the growth of the sport would be a tiny fraction (if any) of what it has been in the last 5-7 years. Hunter class is successful because of one reason, it is comfortable for just about anyone to shoot. If it were not for hunter class I would not be shooting field target today, and if we screw up the class by trying to neuter it, I would give up the sport, just like I did when (in my opinion) we screwed up Pistol FT. You said you created the Monster hunter class, I would say you created the savior of Field Target in the USA.

Your observations on piston shooters are very similar to mine. The vast majority of new shooters we get show up with piston rifles. They shoot a match and score 10 to 20% and decide one of two things. First they had a great time and decide this would be a fun sport to participate in and they will have to upgrade their equipment. Or they decide they had a great time but are not in a position to upgrade equipment or they didn't care for the match format and don't return.

Shooting piston air rifles is HARD, I am preparing for the CA State Match next week and I am going through my annual self torture exercise. Why, because I love field target and most importantly Scott has put together a match that is fun to shoot with a Piston rifle. Open piston class died because the majority of the people shooting the class got tired of shooting mediocre scores on courses that are designed to challenge the top PCP shooters. The same challenge that new field target shooters face.

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